In this realistic tale of a young boy in Tanzania, Stuve-Bodeen, a former Peace Corps volunteer, explores the relationship between Bernardi, who wants nothing more than to attend school and get a real soccer ball, and his grandfather, a wonderfully creative toymaker who has lost the ability to speak. When Babu makes a special music box for the boy that actually plays a song he often sang when he could, Bernardi sells it with much regret to a tourist who offers him a large sum of money. The boy longs to buy the soccer ball with his profit, but feels so guilty that he gives the money to Babu. Wisely, Babu pays school tuition, buys a uniform, and makes a soccer ball out of plastic and string. Impressionistic watercolors depict the houses, marketplaces, and people of Tanzania. A tad idealistic, but warmly told. (Picture book. 6-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-58430-058-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Charming, funny and true to life.
With words, pictures and pictures with words, 6-year-old Dory, called Rascal, recounts how she finally gets her older brother and sister to play with her.
Rascal’s siblings complain that she’s always pestering them. She acts like a baby, she asks weird questions, and she chatters endlessly with her imaginary monster friend. So they tell her a kidnapping witch, Mrs. Gobble Gracker, is looking for her. In her efforts to avoid capture, Rascal becomes a dog. As a “dog,” she’s invisible to the little-girl–stealer but appealing to her older brother, who, it turns out, always wanted to have a dog. She maintains her dogginess all the way through a doctor’s checkup until a surprise vaccination spurs her to speech and retaliation. Rascal and her invented fairy godmother, Mr. Nuggy (he doesn’t look much like a fairy godmother), use the ensuing timeout to concoct poison soup for the witch. Eventually, the witch is vanquished and order more or less restored. Redeemed in the eyes of her siblings because she’s brave enough to retrieve a bouncy ball from the toilet as well as wildly imaginative, Rascal finally gets her wish. Often just on the edge of out of control, this inventive child is irresistible and her voice, convincing. Childlike drawings, often embellished with hand-lettered narrative or speech bubbles, of round-headed humans, Sendak-ian monsters and a snaggle-toothed witch add to the humor.
Charming, funny and true to life. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-8037-4088-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
New readers ready for a challenge and some laughs will welcome more characters from Deckawoo Drive.
Francine Poulet, the laconic and intrepid animal control officer of Gizzford County, is having a crisis of confidence.
Even though she has won 47 trophies for animal catching and hails from a long line of animal control officers, nothing can prepare her for her encounter with one very unusual and creepy raccoon. Mrs. Bissinger has reported a raccoon that shimmers like a ghost and screeches her name. But Francine’s father always said she was solid and down-to-earth, and she refuses to believe in a talking ghost raccoon. When Francine faces the screaming critter, however, it screams “Frannnnnnnnnnnyyyyy!”—the name only her father called her. She is so spooked she panics, grabbing the raccoon almost by accident and falling three stories off the roof, injuring both her body and her confidence. Only by facing her fears can Francine truly call herself a Poulet once again. Exaggerated illustrations are filled with the energy and humor warmly familiar to readers of the Mercy Watson series. This relatively longer format allows DiCamillo to create more complex secondary characters, who add much to the story. The dreamy conversation between solid Francine and her deceased father adds a needed touch of seriousness to the comic premise.
New readers ready for a challenge and some laughs will welcome more characters from Deckawoo Drive. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6886-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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